Judges 20:31-36

Judges 20:31

And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

They children of Benjamin then went after the children of Israel and the way the Israelites had placed the liers in wait, they were out in the field just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on their enemy.  This time the men of Benjamin were drawn away from the city as the Israelites had intentionally withdrawn from the city and its protections.  As they went out into the highways they began to kill as they did beforehand.  They were now in the highways as one led to the house of God and the other to Gibeah.  They were now in a situation where there were no natural or manmade protections for them.  Their first confrontation yielded the death of 30 Israelites.

Judges 20:32

And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.

The men of Benjamin had thought that the battle was going their way as in the previous times because thy slew the thirty.  Then the men of Israel told their army to withdraw as if they were fleeing for the purpose of getting them out in the open, on the highways.  This tactic had emboldened the men of Benjamin causing them to believe they would also win this day.

Judges 20:33

And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.

Then the men of Israel rose up from where they had retreated to since they were probably far enough from Gibeah so the Benjamites would not be able to retreat into the town.  Baal-tamar was somewhere in the plains of Jericho and might have been an old Canaanite worship grove.  Then while the main army was setting themselves in an array, the liers in wait began to come out of their places which were in the meadows of Gibeah which would be a strategic location because the men of Benjamin would not be able to retreat into the town for safety.

Judges 20:34

And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them.

Then ten thousand chosen men came against Gibeah.  The battle was sore meant “there was heavy fighting.”  This was the first major threat to Gibeah since most of their fighting men were out in the fields cut off from safe retreat to help defend the city.  The inhabitants of Gibeah did not know that “evil” was near them, that is, calamity or disaster.  Their days of solid victory over the children of Israel were now over.

Judges 20:35

And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.

The Lord Himself had smote Benjamin because he told them that He would give them into their hands.  The children of Israel had killed 25,100 fighting men of Benjamin.  This would have been a crushing defeat for the men of Benjamin and would have instilled fear in them that their days were numbered.  A total of 65,100 men were killed on both sides up to this point all for the protection of a few sodomites.

Judges 20:36

So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.